Beau Travail 15

Sparse dialogue, rugged landscapes, masculine spectacles and disco dancing - this is a loose adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd updated to take place in a French Foreign Legion outpost in East Africa.

Sergeant Galoup (Denis Lavant) runs his group of men like a well-oiled machine - their relentless routine of drills and training filmed like mesmeric military ballets. When promising new recruit Sentain (Grégoire Colin) arrives on the scene, however, Galoup lets his irrational jealousy get a hold of him as he erupts in a Dionysian frenzy of wrath and envy. Beautiful, darkly lyrical and curiously surreal.